Excel TEXT Function
The TEXT function converts a value to text with a specified format in Excel.

Syntax
=TEXT (value, format_text)
Arguments
Value: The numeric value to be converted to text.
Format_text: The format you will apply for the cell value.
Return Value
A text value
Function Notes
The TEXT function will convert the numeric value to text format, but the result won’t allow you to reference in other calculations. It is best to separate the original value and the TEXT function in different cells, and reference the original value in other calculations instead of the result text.
Examples
The examples as the below screenshot shown help you convert a date to different kinds of date formatting in Excel.
Select a blank cell, copy one of the below formulas as you need into it and then press the Enter key to get the result.
- =TEXT(B4,"MM/DD/YY")
- =TEXT(B4,"dddd dd mmmm, yyyy")
- =TEXT(B4, "mmm dd yyyy")
- =TEXT(B4,"d-mmm-yy")
- =TEXT(B4,"dddd")
- =TEXT(B4,"mmmm")

Here provides the custom date formatting characters that Excel recognizes as the below table shown.
Character | Description | Examples |
d | Day of month or day of week. Displays the day as number without a leading zero. | 1/09/2019 converts to 1 |
dd | Day of month or day of week. Displays the day as a number with a leading zero. | 1/09/2019 converts to 01 |
ddd | Day of month or day of week. Displays the day as three-letter abbreviation (Mon to Sun). | 1/09/2019 converts to Sun |
dddd | Day of month or day of week. Displays the day as full name (Monday to Sunday). | 1/09/2019 converts to Sunday |
m | Month Displays the month as number without a leading zero. | 1/09/2019 converts to 9 |
mm | Month Displays the month as two-digit number with a leading zero. | 1/09/2019 converts to 09 |
mmm | Month Displays the month as an abbreviation (Jan to Dec). | 1/09/2019 converts to Sep |
mmmm | Month Displays the month as full name (January to December). | 1/09/2019 converts to September |
mmmmm | Month Displays the month as a single letter (J to D). | 1/09/2019 converts to S |
yy | Year Displays the year as two-digit number. | 1/09/2019 converts to 19 |
yyyy | Year Displays the year as four-digit number. | 1/09/2019 converts to 2019 |
Tips: Except applying the TEXT function to date format, it also can be used to convert numbers, times to various custom number formats, such as currency and accounting, percentage, fractions and so on.
Related Functions
Excel SUBSTITUTE function
The Excel SUBSTITUTE function replaces text or characters within a text string with another text or characters..
Excel TEXTJOIN Function
The Excel TEXTJOIN function joins multiple values from a row, column or a range of cells with specific delimiter.
Excel TRIM Function
The Excel TRIM function removes all extra spaces from text string and only keeps single spaces between words.
Excel UPPER Function
The Excel UPPER function converts all letters of a given text to uppercase.
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